Coffee Stain Art by Hong Yi

Inspired by the song of Jay Chou, Shanghai-based artist Hong Yi decided to create his portrait using nothing but Nescafe coffee stains on the bottom of a mug. To be more exact, the 26-year-old artist was inspired by the first line of the song about lifting up a coffee cup off the saucer and “the ending of the song about fragmented pieces – this is shown through the portrait as a whole – how it’s formed by many individual rings, many of them broken and imperfect.”

“The song is about traveling 20 years back in time and is reflected through how the portrait looks like sepia-toned photo. Autumn is shown through the brown colours of the portrait, giving it an old, rustic feel.”

Yi says that it was “a tricky medium to use – too much water and the rings wouldn’t form easily, very little water and you’d have to be precise with where you place the cup coz the rings would pretty much be permanent.”